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What's happening on the farm right now?
Some of you may remember me writing late last year about our collaboration with the Equal Plates Project. They now have two kitchens where they "transform local farm products into delicious meals for community members facing complex barriers to quality food access." We are planning on growing 10 beds of butternut squash for them this season and the photo above shows our new squash patch covered with big silage tarps. These tarps are killing back the grass and when we pull them off in 3 weeks we are hoping for find almost bare ground. The grass will have been smothered by the tarps and the residues incorporated into soil by all our earthworms and other soil organisms. This will cut down on how much we have to disturb the ground to get it ready for planting, leaving all the good tilth and soil structure intact to grow better plants and better squash.
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Equal Plates is a great and growing organization. Here's a link to make a donation to support them in their work to support local farmers like us and address food insecurity in our community.
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We're also doing a bunch of planting outside. Our early caterpillar tomatoes went in on Monday. Despite frost the last two nights, they are looking cute and cozy under their double cover of row cover. I even saw a few flowers. We also put out the first round of cucumbers and summer squash. They'll be hooped and covered to keep them warm and protected from the cold. Sunflowers and the next round of lettuce and lettuce mix are out as well as our first round of cut flowers. The weeds are starting to grow too so we have been out there with the cultivating tractor and hoes to try to stay ahead.
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What's available in the store and at market this week?
The North Asheville Tailgate Market hours are 8am until 12pm.
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We'll have the first lettuce mix of the season this week, along with radishes, Japanese baby turnips, more mixed kale and... strawberries! The strawberries are just starting to trickle in so if you miss them, we will have a lot more next week.
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For those of us gardeners who just cant wait, we also be bringing some cucumber, squash and tomato plants along with starter plants of dill, cilantro, Italian parsley and mixed lettuces.
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The pond is full of tadpoles at this time of year. The picture is just a tiny patch of the shore and there are hundreds in this shot. The tadpoles line the shore all the way around the pond. The abundance is both awe inspiring and disturbing all at once.
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John's Recipe of the Week
| John Loyd is our dear friend, neighbor, CSA worker member and a gourmet Southern cook. His delightful observations on gardening and cooking appear here each week. |
“I watch cooking change the cook, just as it transforms the food.” Laura Esquivel
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The plan here is to share cooking tips and recipes. The goal is to have simple but tasty recipes that are mostly Southern. Now Southern covers crab cakes in Maryland all way to brisket in Texas. The most diverse food ways in the USA. So there is much to choose from as the season proceeds. A few ideas from other cultures will also sneak into the recipes.
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Unless mentioned, recipes contain extra virgin olive oil and unsalted butter.
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We get our oil from the Asheville Wine Market by the gallon. It’s Greek and great on about everything. Save the expensive olive oil when it is front and center in the recipe like on salads. The Wine Market is an excellent source of affordable wine and good help and advice.
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CRANBERRY VINAIGRETTE – This dressing holds up well in kale salad and is good on lettuce salads too. Thanks to Stephanie Tyson at the Well, Shut My Mouth Café in Greensboro. Stephanie is part of the recent rise of female chefs and chefs of color here in America. She has written a fine cookbook. Makes 2 cups.
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¼ cup apple cider vinegar
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¼ cup cranberry sauce or more if you like
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Combine everything but the oil and pepper in a processor and start it, slowly adding the oil. Season with pepper.
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As I was watching the tadpoles, this beautiful dragon fly emerge from the water. The shell on the left is what it hatched out of.
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Your farmers, Vanessa and Alex
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Love the flowers. Honor the vegetables. Let the weeds go!
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- Cheri Huber and Ashwini Narayanan
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